Shortcut key of the week (13)

An easy and effective way to flip between open applications without having to go into each one to see if it is the application you need.

The key sequence:

“Alt” + “Tab”

The result:

Jump between the open applications on your Windows computer.

The key sequence:

“Alt” + “Shift” + “Tab”

The result:

Jump backwards between the open applications on your Windows computer. If the Alt Tab is forwards, this is backwards 😉

The key sequence:

“Win” + “Tab”

The result:

Jump between the open applications on your Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer in a 3D view. Very Cool!

The key sequence:

“Ctrl” + “→“

The result:

The cursor will jump to the beginning of the next word.

The key sequence:

“Ctrl” + “←“

The result:

The cursor will jump to the beginning of the current word.

The key sequence:

“Shift” + “End”

The result:

The cursor will jump to the end of the current line and highlight the enter line of text from the current cursor position.

The key sequence:

“Shift” + “Home”

The result:

The cursor will jump to the beginning of the current line and highlight the enter line of text from the current cursor position.

The key sequence:

The “End” key

The result:

The cursor will jump to the end of the current line.

The key sequence:

The Ctrl + “End” key

The result:

The cursor will jump to the end of the current document.

The key sequence:

The “Home” key

The result:

The cursor will jump to the beginning of the current line.

The key sequence:

“Ctrl” + “Home” key

The result:

The cursor will jump to the beginning of the current document.

The key sequence:

Ctrl + Shift + : and then the character, eg. e

The result:

The Afrikaans “deelteken”, in this case – “ë” – or called a “diaresis” in English.

The key sequence:

Ctrl + Shift + ^ and then the character, eg. e

The result:

The Afrikaans “kappie” (sirkumfleks), in this case – “ê” – referred to as a “circumflex” in English

The key sequence:

Ctrl + ` and then the character, eg e

The result:

The Afrikaans “gravis-aksent”, in this case – “è” – in English an “accent grave”

The key sequence:

Ctrl + ‘ and then the character, eg e

The result:

The Afrikaans “akuut-aksent”, in this case – “é” – and in English an “accent aigu”

Remember you can also change the MS Office products to work, spell and report screen messages in Afrikaans as well, have a look at our previous article on MS Word in Afrikaans.

The key sequence:

Ctrl + V

The result:

Whatever information you have gathered with your Ctrl C, Ctrl X and any other means, can now be pasted into the document. If using paste from pull-down menus, there are often types of “paste” – like paste as unformatted text etc – but more on that in a future tip.

The key sequence:

Ctrl + Z

The result:

A quick way to undo the last command or typing – and if you are really undecided, you can use Shift Ctrl + Z to redo the last command.

The key sequence:

Ctrl + C

The result:

Copy the selected text into the clipboard (an area where all of your temporary text/images are stored when copy and pasting). Or in Windows terms – “Copy” the selected area. Very similar to the Ctrl X, but does not remove the text thereafter.

Not exactly Ctrl C, but a form of copying 😉

The key sequence:

Ctrl + X

The result:

Copy the selected text into the clipboard (an area where all of your temporary text/images are stored when copy and pasting) and then remove the selected text all in one process. Or in Windows terms – “Cut” the selected area

The key sequence:

Ctrl + A

The result:

Select everything possible of selecting on the current window. This is a great shortcut when doing a lot of copying from one window to another. A useful shortcut when using Ctrl C or X or V.

The key sequence:

Alt + E

The result:

This is used to bring up the Edit menu on the application that is currently active.

This is a good shortcut, but with time, you will replace most of the “Alt E” with direct shortcuts like “Ctrl C” etc.

In Office 2010, you will not get the Edit menu, but it will ask you to either continue with the old key sequence or just abort the key shortcut.

A quick tip about Office shortcuts, remember than pressing the Alt key on it’s own brings up the quick key letters on the menu ribbon, so that at a glance you know which letter does what action.

The key sequence:

Alt + F

The result:

This is used to bring up yourfile menu on the application that is currently active.

I use it a lot in applications where they hide the menus away, like Firefox, Media Player etc – a simple “Alt + F” and there she is!